Weston Observatory among those feeling earthquake tremors in region

The phones at Boston College's Weston Observatory were ringing all afternoon with people calling to say they had felt tremors from yesterday's earthquake up and down the East Coast.

By Matt Tota/Daily News correspondent

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Matt Tota/Daily News correspondent

Posted Aug. 24, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 24, 2011 at 5:16 AM

By Matt Tota/Daily News correspondent

Posted Aug. 24, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 24, 2011 at 5:16 AM

WESTON

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Rumblings from the earthquake that rattled the Eastern Seaboard yesterday were felt throughout the region, according to multiple reports.

Based in Virginia, the 5.8-magnitude earthquake occurred at 1:51 p.m., said Anastasia Moulis, a seismologist at Boston College's Weston Observatory.

In addition, there was a 2.8 magnitude aftershock recorded at 2:46 p.m., she said.

Moulis said the phones at the observatory were ringing all afternoon with people calling to say they had felt the tremors.

"We are getting calls from all over, from Weymouth to Amesbury to Watertown," Moulis said. "It most likely will be felt in Canada, as well."

Because the earthquake was shallow - 3.7 miles deep - New Englanders were able to feel the rumbles, she said.

Boston Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the department received a rush of 911 calls from people wondering what was happening. But there were no reported injuries or damage in the city, and Peter Judge of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said the same was true statewide.

In Boston, hundreds of workers emptied into the streets as buildings were evacuated, including an eight-story office building in the seaport district that houses the local branch of the United Way.

Dozens of evacuated workers from the federal courthouse on the South Boston waterfront gathered near the harbor as television helicopters flew overhead. Worker Tracy McLoughlin said it was her first experience with an earthquake and added, "I'd rather not have another one. I don't want to go back in. Not today."

Natick native Margot Edwards, a publicist in Berklee's Office of Public Information in Boston, said the quake "felt like a subway passing by."

Her building at 855 Boylston St. was not evacuated.

The last significant earthquake to shake the East Coast, Moulis said, occurred in South Carolina during the late 1880's.

Recorded at 7.3 on the Richter scale, the earthquake caused multiple casualties and significant damage, she said.

Unlike the West Coast - which sits along the boundary of two tectonic plates and where stronger earthquakes occur more consistently - the East Coast rests in the middle of a plate, Moulis said.

"We do have at least three or four (earthquakes) a month in New England, but they are smaller," she said.

In a statement released yesterday, State Police spokesman David Procopio said there were no reported injuries or significant structural damage.

Procopio also said that employees at the State Police General Headquarters in Framingham felt the tremors, leading some to leave the building, but there was no evacuation.